


Hannibal ante portas

by HollyMartins



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: #ItsStillBeautiful, Hannibal Loves Will, Hannibal's birth name, Lithuania - Freeform, M/M, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, Post-Finale, Will Loves Hannibal, mentioned Chiyoh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 14:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7718773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HollyMartins/pseuds/HollyMartins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Hannibal reveals a long held secret to Will and the two men make a promise to one another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hannibal ante portas

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my entry for the #ItsStillBeautiful event! This is my first time participating so I hope I am tagging everything correctly! Please let me know if I am missing something. Also, this story takes place relatively recently after the Fall and the two have fled to the sea. 
> 
> Please be aware that this is not beta read so any mistakes, please let me know.
> 
> Thank you again for reading and remember, comments are love. Stop by hollymartinswrites.tumblr.com to say hello!

"I have a confession to make."

Will exhaled slowly and rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling. He listened to the sound of the rain pattering above the sailboat's cabin for several moments before responding, "I thought you let me see you. All of you."

Hannibal closed his eyes and swallowed.

"All of me that matters. This is...minor. Relatively speaking," he said.

"Alright," Will sighed. "What is it?"

"My birth name isn't Hannibal."

Will barked a laugh and covered his eyes with his hand. Hannibal glanced at him and tried to determine just what about his statement was so amusing.

"I knew it," Will finally said, lowering his hand.

"Did you?"

"What are the chances that a cannibal would be named Hannibal?" Will asked, a grin still on his face. "What's more, I don't believe Hannibal is a Lithuanian name."

Hannibal allowed himself a slight smile.

"You're quite right," he said. "Oddly enough, you are the first person to point out the lack of my home country's influence in my name. No one else ever bothered to question it."

"You carry your name well."

"Thank you."

"So," Will said and turned onto his side, wincing; his cracked ribs had healed but he was still sore, bruises never quite fading, "are you going to tell me your real name?"

Something changed in Hannibal's eyes and his mouth grew tight.

"My real name is Hannibal," he said.

"Your birth name, I mean," Will said quickly. "Are you going to tell me? Or is it a secret?"

"It's no secret," Hannibal replied. "It simply belongs to a different person, a different lifetime."

"Why did you change it? And when?"

Hannibal swallowed and stared at the ceiling, his eyes going slightly out of focus.

"I changed it when the boy I was died in Lithuania. Many years ago."

Will reached out a hand and tentatively touched his arm. It was warm and solid beneath his fingertips. Will wondered what that boy had looked like; thin and gangly with a shock of blond hair? The same sharp cheekbones or a plumper face? An easier smile?

"Tell me his name," Will whispered.

"Jurgis," Hannibal sighed. "That is the name I was given at birth."

"Jurgis," Will said, testing it on his tongue. It was a bit heavy and halting. "Does it have an English equivalent?"

"George."

Will closed his eyes and tried to imagine referring to the man beside him in the bed as George. He smiled.

"Why did you change it?" Will repeated. "Because you wanted a fresh start?"

"Not exactly," Hannibal replied. "Jurgis was the name of my father's late brother, who had died in infancy. It never quite felt like it belonged to me."

Will nodded.

"I was named after my grandfather," he said. "I never met him. Seemed a bit odd."

Hannibal's eyes were still out of focus and Will wondered if he had heard him at all.

"When did you start going by your real name?" Will asked.

"I was fifteen. Perhaps sixteen. My family was dead. I was alone and had to face the world on my own. It was rather like my own becoming."

"And why Hannibal? Besides the rhyme."

For the first time since the conversation started, Hannibal looked at Will and smiled.

"I admit, the rhyme was a bit of the appeal but actually, it was for my mother."

Will raised an eyebrow. Hannibal turned his gaze back to the ceiling and cleared his throat softly.

"My mother was a historian, with a focus on warfare of the ancient world," he continued. "She was writing a dissertation on Hannibal's famous crossing of the Alps. She had a theory on how he accomplished it."

"What was it?"

"I don't recall," he sighed. "I was still a child when she was killed."

Will swallowed, realizing that the man beside him had once been a child, raised and loved by parents and adored by a younger sister. He wondered how much Chiyoh had told him was true.

"Perhaps the manuscript is still there, moldering in the Lecter estate," Hannibal wondered aloud.

"We could go back and get it," Will said abruptly.

Hannibal suddenly seemed to go completely still.

"No," he said firmly, "I'll never go back there."

Will must have winced or perhaps made a slight sound of distress because Hannibal turned to look at him, his eyes troubled.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing, I...nothing. It's stupid."

"I have never heard you say a stupid thing in all these years I've had the honor to know you," Hannibal observed. "Tell me."

Will sighed and turned onto his back again, an arm thrown over his eyes. A defense.

"I went to your childhood home," he said.

"I know."

"I left you something there."

Hannibal furrowed his brows and frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"A gift. For you."

"I don't understand."

"I don't either," Will admitted. "I don't even know why I did it. I don't know if I thought you would ever return there to see it. Chiyoh saw it. Perhaps I thought she would bear witness of it for you."

Hannibal swallowed.

"You gave me a gift?" he whispered, his voice light and hopeful. He reached over and gently grasped Will's arm, moving it away from his eyes.

"Yes," Will said, suddenly shy. "It's still there."

"Then we shall have to go," Hannibal said.

"But you just—"

"It will no longer be the tomb of Jurgis Lecter and his family," Hannibal observed, a sudden smile on his tired face. "It will be the site of the rebirth of Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham. Together."

Will quirked a smile and nodded.

"Yes, we should go," he agreed.

"As soon as possible," Hannibal said. "Besides, I have never been one to refuse a gift."


End file.
